Joining Gunnoe are Jeremy Richardson, Union of Concerned Scientists Kendall Science Fellow in Clean Energy Innovation and Stuart Batterman, Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan. The group will explore the problems with coal mining and burning, as well as options for cleaner, more humane sources of energy.

Together, these four speakers represent an extraordinary depth and breadth of expertise with the environmental and human health impacts of mining and burning coal. Batterman and Nadelhoffer study human and environmental impacts of air pollution. Gunnoe is a social justice educator and vocal opponent of mountaintop removal mining. Richardson is a physicist who currently works in the policy realm on energy issues.

Both Gunnoe and Richardson have deep family connections to West Virginia coal mining. Richardson’s grandfather and father worked for the mines, as does his brother. Gunnoe’s grandfather was also a miner. He bought the land where her family still lives, and which was covered in toxic coal sludge in a 2004 flood. It was this flood that prompted Gunnoe’s activism against mountaintop removal mining. Ms. Gunnoe is the 2012 Raoul Wallenberg Medal recipient. The University of Michigan awards the medal each year to an outstanding humanitarian.

Co-sponsored by UMBS and the Union of Concerned Scientists along with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the Environmental Law and Policy Program, the Program in the Environment, the School of Natural Resources and Environment and the School of Public Health.